The present invention relates to an intermittent windshield wiper controller, more particularly to a computer-aided self-learning intermittent windshield wiper controller.
According to a statistical report, the growth rate of the number of cars in this country has been increasing in recent years, partly contributing to the increased traffic accidents on a large scale. However, driving in the rain is a major reason why there were so many traffic accidents. The dim vision associated with raining keeps drivers in a dangerous situation that drivers have to concentrate on driving without any oversights.
In order to help drivers to drive in a better condition in the rain, a good wiper with some specific functions plays the most important role in improving the visibility.
As a matter of fact, the structures and functions of commercially available wipers are essentially the same without any special features. Although there might be some minor differences, e.g., modifications in the sweeping operation of intermittent mode, they won't depart from either one of the following two patterns.
1. The intermittent sweeping operations of the wipers equipped in most cars work in a same manner. Briefly to say, the wipers sweep at intervals of a predetermined constant time period which can not be varied with the rainfalls. (Shown in FIG. 1)
2. The adjustability as claimed in some other commercial wipers are achieved by a fine tuner. A driver who is driving in the rain has to adjust the fine tuner manually according to the raining condition observed. Consequently, he must try many times of adjustment to obtain an optimal sweeping interval. However, the rainfall will have changed at the time the driver obtains an appropriate sweeping interval which is obtained according to the previous condition of rains.
In view of above disadvantages of conventional wipers, the inventor has invented a practical, easy-handling, and highly reliable computer-aided self-learning intermittent windshield wiper controller after a series of analyses and experiments taking every possible condition into consideration. According to the present invention, the computer will "learn" and thereby "know" when to instruct the wiper to sweep intermittently at intervals of recorded time, and to adjust the time interval of the wiper according to the degree of heaviness of the rain. (Shown in FIG. 2) The time interval between sweeping cycles will be shortened when the rain becomes heavier and the sweeping will speed up. Similarly, when the rain becomes lighter, the interval will be lengthened and the sweeping will slow down. With the aid of such a wiper, better visibility can be ensured so as to keep the driver in a much safer condition when driving in the rain.
For better understanding the features and techniques of the present invention, please refer to the detailed specification and annexed drawings which are used only for reference and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.